Joan of Naples eBook

CHAPTER VI

The spectacle of this frightful punishment did not
satisfy the revenge of Charles of Durazzo. Seconded
by the chief-justice, he daily brought about fresh
executions, till Andre’s death came to be no
more than a pretext for the legal murder of all who
opposed his projects. But Louis of Tarentum,
who had won Joan’s heart, and was eagerly trying
to get the necessary dispensation for legalising the
marriage, from this time forward took as a personal
insult every act of the high court of justice which
was performed against his will and against the queen’s
prerogative: he armed all his adherents, increasing
their number by all the adventurers he could get together,
and so put on foot a strong enough force to support
his own party and resist his cousin. Naples was
thus split up into hostile camps, ready to come to
blows on the smallest pretext, whose daily skirmishes,
moreover, were always followed by some scene of pillage
or death.

But Louis had need of money both to pay his mercenaries
and to hold his own against the Duke of Durazzo and
his own brother Robert, and one day he discovered
that the queen’s coffers were empty. Joan
was wretched and desperate, and her lover, though
generous and brave and anxious to reassure her so
far as he could, did not very clearly see how to extricate
himself from such a difficult situation. But his
mother Catherine, whose ambition was satisfied in
seeing one of her sons, no matter which, attain to
the throne of Naples, came unexpectedly to their aid,
promising solemnly that it would only take her a few
days to be able to lay at her niece’s feet a
treasure richer than anything she had ever dreamed
of, queen as she was.

The empress then took half her son’s troops,
made for Saint Agatha, and besieged the fortress where
Charles and Bertrand of Artois had taken refuge when
they fled from justice. The old count, astonished
at the sight of this woman, who had been the very
soul of the conspiracy, and not in the least understanding
her arrival as an enemy, sent out to ask the intention
of this display of military force. To which Catherine
replied in words which we translate literally:

“My friends, tell Charles, our faithful friend,
that we desire to speak with him privately and alone
concerning a matter equally interesting to us both,
and he is not to be alarmed at our arriving in the
guise of an enemy, for this we have done designedly,
as we shall explain in the course of our interview.
We know he is confined to bed by the gout, and therefore
feel no surprise at his not coming out to meet us.
Have the goodness to salute him on our part and reassure
him, telling him that we desire to come in, if such
is his good pleasure, with our intimate counsellor,
Nicholas Acciajuoli, and ten soldiers only, to speak
with him concerning an important matter that cannot
be entrusted to go-betweens.”